Bryan Stow suspects wanted to blame ‘big white dudes,’ tape shows

Audiotape of the two suspects in the 2011 Dodger Stadium beating of San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow revealed that some of the most damaging evidence against the men came from their own mouths.

The release came the same day that Superior Court Judge George Lomeli determined that prosecutors have enough evidence to try the two.

In a jail cell the day after their arrests, the suspects in the assault expressed amazement at the evidence detectives had amassed against them, with one remarking that police “know everything, bro” and the other saying, “Wow, we’re done.”

“How much time do you think we are going to get?” one suspect, Marvin Norwood, asked.

“A lot,” replied his alleged accomplice, Louie Sanchez.

A transcript of the July conversation recorded by jail authorities was made public Friday.

Placed together in a holding cell as they awaited a police lineup, the men immediately began comparing notes about the evidence against them in last year’s opening day beating of Stow. Norwood, who had met with investigators, said detectives had tracked down photos of them at the game, questioned people who had seen them in the parking lot where the altercation occurred and interviewed Sanchez’s 10-year-old son.

“Porky talked?” Sanchez asked, referring to the boy by a family nickname. “What did he say?”

Norwood said the boy, who had attended the game, told police “everything,” including that his father had kicked a Giants fan in the neck. Sanchez swore and called his son “stupid.”

“We need to come up with a good … defense,” Norwood said.

They talked about telling their lawyers that they had been set upon by a “gang” of “big white dudes” who were harassing Sanchez’s son and his sister, Dorene, Norwood’s fiancee.
“This is the story…. There was six or seven … of them. They were all bigger than me,” Sanchez said in the transcript. Later in the conversation, he acknowledged a man who had disrespected his family: “I socked him … jumped him and started beating him.”

Sanchez, 30, and Norwood, 31, have pleaded not guilty. They will be arraigned June 22 and face maximum sentences of 11 and nine years, respectively, if convicted of mayhem, assault and other charges.

Stow was attacked as he and three other Giants fans, all Bay Area paramedics, walked through the parking lot after the Dodger win. More than a dozen witnesses from the game testified during the six-day preliminary hearing. Some offered vivid accounts of boorish, drunken and profane behavior by Sanchez against Giants fans. Others recalled in chilling detail how a sucker punch from a man in a Dodger jersey sent Stow to the ground, fracturing his skull and leaving him with permanent brain damage.

But none of the witnesses could positively identify Sanchez or Norwood as having delivered the punch, and many of those closest to the altercation were unable to pick either defendant out during police lineups. Defense attorneys seized on this lack of witness identification in arguing for a dismissal of the charges, a request the judge denied.

— Harriet Ryan
LA Times

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